If ever there was a time and place for Brian Burke to pound his chest, this was it.

The Maple Leafs had come to the Saddledome on Wednesday riding the sizzling scoring touch of Phil Kessel who, buoyed by the eight-year, $64-million US extension he inked prior to opening night in Montreal, started the day second in NHL scoring, just two points behind the world’s best player, Sidney Crosby.

This is the same Phil Kessel that Burke had acquired four years earlier for a cache of draft picks that included two first rounders and a second. And when the then-GM of the Maple Leafs would subsequently be ripped for giving up too much after the Bruins used the first rounders to select highly touted forward Tyler Seguin and slick puck-moving defenceman Dougie Hamilton, Burke never backed down from his support of Kessel and The Trade.

“If I could do it all over again 1,000 times, I’d do the same thing,” Burke would say in his trademark bombastic manner.

While Seguin was shipped by the Bruins to Dallas in the summer, Kessel has been anointed as one of the foundations of the Leafs franchise moving forward. And he has fully embraced the role, coming into Wednesday’s contest against the Flames having scored seven times in the previous four games.

For the Burke many Torontonians remember, this would have been the stage for the former GM to point down from the press box at the Leafs No. 81 and say with a sneer to all his detractors: “I told you so.”

But just nine months after being relieved of his duties with the Leafs, Burke, the recently anointed president of hockey operations for the Calgary Flames, wasn’t in the building to boast about the success of the Kessel trade.

Or, for that matter, seek revenge against his former team.

Contacted earlier in the week, Burke said he was heading back to Toronto on Wednesday morning to spend time with his kids, thereby missing the Leafs-Flames clash.

During the brief conversation, Burke politely pointed out that he is not doing any interviews these days, choosing to stay in the background while GM Jay Feaster and coach Bob Hartley serve as the team’s front men.

Brian Burke not in the forefront? Brian Burke opting to let others do the talking?

Dear Calgary, what have you done with the real Brian Burke? The city of Toronto would like to know.

During his introductory press conference in September, Burke told Calgary reporters that they would not hear much from him. If they had questions about players, ask the coach. If there were queries about player movement, go to the GM.

Thus far, Burke has stuck to his word.

At the time that he was brought on board, there was much speculation suggesting that Burke had been brought in to pounce on GM Jay Feaster’s job if the Flames were mediocre. Feaster was made out to be a lame duck GM in some circles, a guy who was just warming the chair for when Burke took over his position.

Feaster heard all the talk that the clock was ticking on his regime. But, to this point, he couldn’t be happier with the appointment of Burke, a guy he knew dating back to the days when both were involved in the American Hockey League.

“They could not have picked a better person for the job,” Feaster said. “Brian has been great.

“From the moment he came in, he was straightforward with us. He has been a great guy to bounce ideas off of but, in the end, he’s pretty much left the decisions in our hands.

“Why wouldn’t you want to pick his brain? This guy has a wealth of hockey knowledge. He’s pretty much worked in every aspect of the game.

“I don’t view him as a threat. I view him has an asset.”

Of course, this is still Brian Burke. And try as he might, sometimes he can’t help himself.

One of the few slipups he has had relating to his vow of silence came at the end of training camp when he was asked about Flames 2011 first-round pick Sven Baertschi.

“All I’ve seen so far is flashes of brilliance. Flashes of brilliance are fine if you’re working in the university, but they’re not much good to people in an NHL building,” Burke replied at the time.

“There are three zones in the ice surfaces in this league. I don’t see that he’s learned to play and compete in two of them.”

Former Leafs' GM staying in shadows with Flames

If ever there was a time and place for Brian Burke to pound his chest, this was it.

The Maple Leafs had come to the Saddledome on Wednesday riding the sizzling scoring touch of Phil Kessel who, buoyed by the eight-year, $64-million US extension he inked prior to opening night in Montreal, started the day second in NHL scoring, just two points behind the world’s best player, Sidney Crosby.

This is the same Phil Kessel that Burke had acquired four years earlier for a cache of draft picks that included two first rounders and a second. And when the then-GM of the Maple Leafs would subsequently be ripped for giving up too much after the Bruins used the first rounders to select highly touted forward Tyler Seguin and slick puck-moving defenceman Dougie Hamilton, Burke never backed down from his support of Kessel and The Trade.

“If I could do it all over again 1,000 times, I’d do the same thing,” Burke would say in his trademark bombastic manner.